Hard Day at the Office

Today was a hard day at the office as we have reached the part of the season where the woodcock can be few and far between.  By lunch time we had run four dogs and only moved 3 woodcock and 3 grouse.  The first dog on the ground after our roadside hot lunch of soup and sausage subs with peepers and onions was Rigby and we put up two more woodcock.  Fortunately Trip was on her game and handled  9 grouse and 2 woodcock for Tony and I as Carnoski took a break and moved one of the trucks to the end of the cover so we didn't have to loop back.  On one find I went to Trip and Tony was on the right wing.  As I shot at a woodcock, Tony shot at a pair of grouse and then two more got up after we'd reloaded. A lot of shooting for one point.  Got the woodcock.

To give you an example of how unpredictable the flights are -- a cover we hit on Monday that had 14 woodcock in was empty when I went back yesterday with Sam who checked it out thoroughly.

Tony kibitzes as The Great Carnoski cooks lunch

13 Days

When I got my Guide's License I thought I'd do 5 to 10 days the first year just to get my feet wet.  So far I've Guided 13 days and have a bunch more booked for November.  It's been really good with some great people who have brought along some good dogs and some great memories.  One that will last was taking nine year old DJ and and his Dad out we moved a bunch of woodcock and then DJ connected on his first grouse.

DJ and his Dad on the tailgate with DJ's trophy.

Another high point was having Ed Nicholson and his crew spend 4 1/2 days with me.  Ed has Ruby and I was fortunate enough to kill her first wild bird.  Th week Ed was here showed what a difference a couple of days can make.  Early in the week it was still Indian Summer with highs in the 60s and tough bird finding conditions.  16 birds Monday and only 12 on Tuesday, the the weather cooled Wednesday we had 22 birds and Thursday we posted a big number with 42 birds moved.  Ed and his buddy Brian hunted Friday morning with me and then Tim and Alan joined me mid-day.  Late in the day we hit an old orchard and some old fields with lots of high bush cranberries -- With Tim's puppy we moved 2 woodcock and 17 grouse and then with Little Thuddy we moved 21 grouse and 3 woodcock to end the day with 49 grouse and 19 woodcock.  Saturday we went at it hard and ran nine different dogs with some of them going twice to ensure they got into birds that gave us a total of 23 grouse and and 20 woodcock.

Ruby in the bird field this summer.

Stokely's Little Tony B

Some of the birds that Tim and Alan scratched down.

Yesterday was another big day.  We're never sure when the flight birds are going to come through and we seem to have had some already and thought we might be done but we got into some yesterday as Tony and I started slow with one woodcock in the first cover and 5 and a grouse with the next dog.  Then we hit a flight with 14 birds moved in a small cover along the river.  Then we hit a couple of grouse covers with 4 grouse each then we took a couple hours off with 20 woodcock and 9 grouse in the book.  At the end of the day we hit one of our "Ecological Traps" and moved 16 more grouse and 4 more woodcock to give us a daily total of 25 grouse and 24 woodcock.

All the puppies that are still here -- Brandy, Sam, and Glo -- are having a great time this season they are all pointing birds and and have had birds shot for them.  The future looks bright.

I'm already thinking ahead to next summer and our second summer wild bird program.  Slots will be very limited as we already have a list of dogs scheduled for Camp.  If you have a dog that you're thinking of sending to Camp don't wait until I'm full to call.